Zeepkist News

[h3]Hey everyone!![/h3]

It's patch time again!!!

A bit earlier than I wanted to but some stuff happened that required me to push this version ASAP.

There was an issue with the Zeepkist servers. Last night there was an issue with workshop levels loading, which I fixed at midnight, but after I'd gone to bed the entire server broke and nobody could connect to anymore anymore.

Soo this morning I spent some time setting up a new server and making sure that all worked, which I've now done and tested and I believe everything should work again!!

With that, I've also had to push a new build that connects to the new server, however I was already working on some other stuff that was nearly done so I finished up that as well.

There may be server instability, as well as file-saving instability. If anything happens, let me know on the Zeepkist Discord!! https://steelpan.dev/zk-discord

[h3]Anyway, here's the changelog!![/h3]

- Awarded level & banner contest hats (sorry this took a while this time!!)

- Capped max force/velocity of fans and boosters, because some people were using the uncapped values to crash people's games.

- Did a bunch of invisible back-end work on Zeepkist's file saving system, making it a lot more robust and far less likely to save corrupt file. It didn't happen often, but sometimes a Zeepkist system file would corrupt, like the settings or progression files, and people's games wouldn't load anymore. I hope this new file saving system will prevent that going forward!!

- Due to the server issues, the "/voteskip" and "/skiplevel" commands had to have been removed.

View the event on Zeepkist's Official Discord server!

[h2]When is the Super League tournament?[/h2]

[h3]Timeslot 1 (2 Rooms, 128 player capacity)[/h3]

• Sunday 13th August at 10:00 PDT
  
• Sunday 13th August at 13:00 EDT
  
• Sunday 13th August at 18:00 BST
  
• Sunday 13th August at 19:00 CEST
  
• Monday 14th August at 04:00 AEDT
  

[h3]Timeslot 2 (1 Room, 64 player capacity)[/h3]

• Sunday 13th August at 19:00 PDT
  
• Sunday 13th August at 22:00 EDT
  
• Monday 14th August at 03:00 BST
  
• Monday 14th August at 04:00 CEST
  
• Monday 14th August at 12:00 AEDT
  

[h2]Super League Details[/h2]

We will be competing on 15 of the 105 level submissions from the 50 Block Challenge level contest held earlier this month. You can checkout all submissions on the Steam Workshop!

The rooms will open around 10 minutes before the event starts and is scheduled to last around 2 hours (7 minutes per level) with a rest period half way through. The first timed level will begin on the hour (~10 minutes after rooms open)

The leaderboards in all rooms will be tracked and will be combined into a single overall leaderboard post-event on zeepki.st/super-league!

Top 3 with the most points will receive a special racing helmet IN-GAME, a Discord role and 3,000 chat EXP in our Discord server!



[h2]Who can join?[/h2]

The Super League is open to all! Open Zeepkist and hop in to one of the Super League rooms hosted by Akane (Timeslot 1) or Socks242 (Timeslot 2). Rooms are filled on a first-come-first-served basis.

Look out for the following rooms hosted by either Akane or Socks242:

• Zeepkist Super League: 50 Block Challenge (1)
  
• Zeepkist Super League: 50 Block Challenge (2)
  

[h2]What tracks are we racing on?[/h2]

The 15 tracks we're racing on have been picked out by our judges. Download the level playlist here.

They are:

• You're turning into a penguin! Stop it by Not That Guy
  
• Fiery Skyway by Linzi
  
• Sorta Spooky by That1Guy
  
• Vijftig by [CTR]jandje
  
• Twilight Twists by mori_cinis
  
• 0PERA7I0N;FCTRY by [OR] Roader
  
• Highwire by justMaki
  
• BREAK TIME: 50 BLOCK EDITION
• Greenwebs by [XTR] NATHAN
  
• Sweet50journ by Richhyyyy
  
• 50p Fireball by CodeingerCat
  
• Sulphurous Sea by RoundNzt
  
• Broken Glass by AndMe14
  
• 50 Neon Nights by Dunke
  
• Floating In The Clouds by OgelGames
  
• Compact 50 by ARCHIEEE
  

[h2]Level Contest Community Vote[/h2]

After the Super League event, we will be opening the community vote to everyone on Steam and our Discord server. You will be able to pick your 3 favourite levels from the 50 Block Challenge theme!

- Akane

[h3]THEME: Wild West[/h3]

• Build a level that has players racing through a wild western landscape.
  
  
• Looking for ideas? How about racing through a gold rush (or ghost) town, a level built inside a saloon or racing on top of a steam train!
  

[h3]DEADLINE[/h3]

• Your track should be complete and submitted by Sunday, 27th August 2023 at 18:00 UTC+1
  
  
• Submissions will be combined into a single workshop item after the deadline above
  

[h3]SUBMISSION RULES[/h3]

1. You can only submit one level (you can modify or replace your submission as much as you like until the deadline)
   
2. Level collaborations are permitted (this counts as a level submission for each individual creator)
   
3. The name of the level MUST start with "ZSL - " (e.g "ZSL - My Level")
   

[h3]LEVEL RULES[/h3]

1. Scaling track pieces is permitted
   
2. Level MUST follow any theme requirements set
   
3. Level MUST be under 4000 blocks
4. Level MUST have an author time above 30 seconds
5. Level MUST have an author time under 1 minute 30 seconds (90s)
   
6. Level MUST have at least 2 checkpoints. Consider adding additional checkpoints for split timing or where it would prevent a cut, as cuts do not make for good tournament tracks!
   
7. Level MUST NOT have hidden finishes/shortcuts (e.g using no-collision or invisible blocks to hide a secret path that is NOT the intended route)
   

[h3]HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR LEVEL[/h3]

1. Join our Official Discord server
2. Upload the level to the Steam Workshop
   
3. Link the workshop item in the theme's thread in #level-submissions
   
   Don't have Discord? You can submit your entry by linking it in the Steam forum thread for this announcement!
   

[h3]WINNERS & PRIZES[/h3]

• Up to 15 of the submitted levels will be used for the next Zeepkist Super League event
  
• The community will vote on their favourite maps from the theme after the ZSL event
  
• Top 3 in the community votes for Best Decor and Best Track Layout will each win a special hard hat cosmetic in-game. Discord users will also get a `Level Contest Winner` role and 3,000 chat EXP in our Discord server.
  

[h3]BANNER CONTEST[/h3]
We're also hosting a themed banner contest for our discord server banner image!

The theme is Wild West and ends at the same time as this level contest!! View the banner contest event details on Discord

- Akane

Hey everyone!!

I've just uploaded a new beta branch to Steam
it's v15p999001033 and can be accessed with beta code LETSTESTFILESAVING

beta codes can be entered here:


now: what is this? what's this all about? who cares about file saving? 👀
there's this issue that's been plaguing zeepkist since I first started working on it: sometimes, random files I would save to disk would corrupt and zeepkist would break
think progression files, settings files, or even the internal file that saves all of your times in levels

why did this happen?

not really sure, windows is just weird like that sometimes and computers aren't perfect
so what I did was I created a whole new internal function "safefilesaving" which attemps 10 times to safe a file and does an MD5 hash check to make sure the file that got saved hasn't been corrupted
I ripped out all of the old file saving calls and redirected them to the new "safefilesaving" call

I've been testing everything and it all appears to work normally
but there's always the chance I've overlooked something

so that's why I've uploaded this new patch to a beta branch before setting it live for everyone
but other than being on a beta branch, it works the same as a regular branch, so you can upload to workshop, connect to server, etc etc etc

what I would suggest is everyone who wants to giving this a shot and seeing if they run into any game-breaking issues

list of save functions I've replaced:

• playlist saving
  
• settings saving
  
• progression saving
  
• internal "replay" saving (not saving replays yet, just keeps track of your times on different tracks)
  
• controller userdatastore saving
  
• workshop projects saving
  
• levels saving
  

if everything works, you shouldn't notice anything different
the only thing you might notice is that backup files now have a slightly different naming convention, and levels don't get empty backup folders anymore

so yeah that's that!!
it's not flashy at all, but it's pretty important to not have your game files corrupt randomly :D





once everything is working and stuff I'll push this update live :)

happy zeepkisting!!

- Renamed "Raw Steering" to "Disable Velocity-Based Steering-Limiter (Not Recommended, For Steering Wheel Players Only)" because people kept accidentally turning it on and ruining their Zeepkist experience because they misunderstood what the setting does.

- Added Super League winner

- Input Visualizer default setting is now on